Device for collecting miners&#39; checks.



No. 853,971. E PATENTED MAY 21, 1907.. P. 0. GREENE.

DEVICE FOR COLLECTING MINERS-GHEGKS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I7, 1906.

WITNESSES I INVENTOR .4/W 914ml I BY fw .TW 5 9 ATYOl-P/VE) 1m: NORRISPETERS cm, WASHINCYON. n. c.

FRANK c. GREENE, or CLEVELAND, 01-110.

DEVICE FOR COLLECTING IVHNERS CHECKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1907.

Application filed September 17, 1906. Serial No. 385,040.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK C. GREENE, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Cleveland, county of Cuyahoga, and State of Ohio, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Devices for Collecting MinersChecks, of which the following is a specification, the principle of theinvention being herein explained and the best mode in which I havecontemplated applying that principle, so as to distinguish it from otherinventions.

My invention relates to an improved method of handling miners checks,and particularly to means devised for collecting such checks at thedumping station. it need scarcely be explained that in mines, especiallycoal-mines, the system almost universally adopted for keeping account ofthe work of individual miners is to supply each miner with a check,usually of metal for obvious reasons, that bears a number or other markof identification and that is placed on each car of coal dug by thatparticular miner. Then the car arrives at the tipple such check isremoved prior to or after dumping the car and the proper miner thencredited with the weight of the cars contents. Since miners are paid inmany instances not for the gross weight of the coal which they dig, butfor the net Weight after the slack has been screened out, and since theproportion of slack depends to a large extent on the care exercised bythe miner, it will be readily apparent that to insure justice as well asproper credit means must be provided whereby a check after being onceattached to a car cannot be removed or exchanged by any one with improper motives. To this end devices in'considerable variety have beenbrought forth for locking the check in the holder provided on the carand for otherwise preventing molestation of such check.

The object of my device is to do away altogether with complicatedcheck-holders on the car without lessening the security against removal,and at the same time provide simple and wholly automatic mechanism forabstracting the check at the proper time and place. Said inventionconsists of means hereinafter fully described and particularly set forthin the claims.

The annexed drawing and the following description set forth in detailcertain means embodying the invention, such disclosed me ansconstituting but one ofvarious mech anical forms in which the principleof the invention may be used.

In said annexed drawing: the single figure there appearing shows partlyin side elevation and partly in diagrammatic fashion one form of deviceembodying my several im provements.

As will be obvious from an inspection of this figure I contemplatesecuring the check, designated by A, in the car K, by simply suspendingthe same from a hook 7c projecting inwardly from the rear end of suchcar. This hook 7c is designed to be located a suffi cient distance belowthe level of the car to in sure its being entirely covered by the coalwhen the car is filled so as to not only conceal the check but toeffectually preclude molestation of the same, as well. Such check, being put in place before the miner begins to load his car, willaccordingly not be disclosed until after the car has been tiltedforwardly on the tilting track-section of the dump. The coal line whichbefore extended along 7c drops to 75 and the check can be readilyremoved. Obviously such removal, if to be effected by hand, would entailno little inconvenience and delay and for this reason any such method asthat just described of caring for the check while en route from mineroom to tipple has been heretofore considered impracticable. It is atthis juncture that my device comes in and by automatically collectingthe checks of successive cars as the latter are thus tilted forwardmakes it possible to use the above method without the difficultysupposedly associated therewith.

Of the numerous types of dumps at present in. use I have chosen only onewith which to illustrate the operation of my improved check collector,this being a form of dump re cently devised. by myself in which thetilting track-section has both an oscillatory and a downward movement.An oscillatory tracksect'ion, however, is a feature of practically everytype of dump, whether cross-over or track-end, and since of the dumpmechanism such tilting track-section alone enters into operativerelation with my device, the particular form illustrated is intended tobe merely typical.

The device proper consists of an arm B pivotally mounted above thetilting trackseetion O, and so disposed as to be normally engaged by theinside of the rear end of the car, as such rear end is elevated upon thecar being tilted forward. The location of hook ft on such rear end ofthe car, and of the pivotal axis of arm B, is furthermore such as tobring the lower end of the latter into approximate register with suchhook. At another point in its path of oscillation the lower end of armB. is designed to pass contiguously to a check receptacle B, that,where, as is usual, the weighing stand or office is at distance from thedumping station, is connected with such stand or office by a trough orconduit 1) adapted to conduct the check thereto. On the lower end of thearm, which it is thus seen passes in different parts of its path ofoscillation contiguously to the car end and to the check receptacle B,respectively, is mounted an electro-magnet b. This magnet is energizedby the current from a battery B or other source of electrical energythrough suitable connections comprising a fixed contact member and amovable mem ber mounted on the arm B. The disposition of these contactmembers is such as to energize magnet 1/ at all times except when thelower end of the arm is contiguous to receptacle B.

Oscillation of arm B is effected in unison with the movementsof thetilting track-section O through suitable connecting means here shown ascomprising simply a cord or cable b passing over a fixed pulley andattached at one end to the arm and at the other to the track-section.

The manner of operation of the device should be readily apparent fromthe foregoing description.

Arm B normally hangs substantially vertical and at a sufficient distanceabove the car to clear the forward end of the same as it ad vanees ontothe tilting track-section of the dump. As such car, however, tiltsforward its rear end is elevated, exposing the check A on hook 7c, andbringing such check into juxtaposition with the electromagnet Z/ on armB. The magnet immed iately seizes the check, which should of course bemade of iron, and as the car settles back to its former level, withdrawsthe same from oil hook 7;. Further movement of the track-section,including, in the case in hand as has been stated, a downward as well asoscillatory motion, is calculated through the medium of connecting cordZ) to swing such arm into proximity with receptacle B. The magnet l) issimultaneously (lo-energized by the breaking of connection betweencontact members 6 b and the check A is thus left free to fall into thereceptacle and roll to its final destination.

Oscillation of arm B at the proper time may of course be effected byother means than the cord connection shown between it and the dump; infact with another type of dump, wl'iere the movements of the tiltingtrack-sectirm varied from those here assumed, a modification in thisparticular would be nocessitated. A system of connecting levers mightbe, for instance, substituted for the cord and pulley even in the casein hand, and the engagement of the car with a movable member might beutilized to ellect the desired result, instead of the connection with.the track-section direct, or for that matter where an operative isrequired any how at the dumping station a cord would enable him. toconveniently swing the lever to discharge the check when necessary.

Having thus described my invention in detail, that which I particularlypoint out and distinctly claim is:

1. The combination with the movable track-section of a dump; of apivotally mounted arm adapted to swing contiguously to a car on said.track-section, and a magnet borne by said arm.

2. The combination with. the oscillatory track-section of a dump of acheck receptacle; a pivotally n'iounted arm adapted to pass in differentparts of its path of oscillation contiguously to a car on saidtrack-section and to said receptacle, respectively, and a magnet borneby said arm.

3. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of aswinging arm connected to operate in unison with said track-section,said arm being disposed to swing contiguonsly to a car thereon; and amagnet borne by said arm.

a. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of aswinging arm. connected to operate in unison with said track-section,said arm being disposed. to swing contiguously to a car thereon; anelectro-magnet mounted upon said arm, and means for energizing saidmagnet.

5. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of aswinging arm opcra-tively connected with said track-section, said armbeing disposed to swing contiguously to a car thereon an electro-magnetmounted upon said arm; and electrical connections for energizing saidmagnet during a part only of each oscillation of said arm.

6. The combination with the oscillatory track-section of a dump; of acheck receptacle a swinging arm operatively connected with saidtrack-section and. disposed to pass in different parts of its path ofoscillation contiguously to a car upon said track-section. and to saidcheck receptacle, respectively; an electro-magnet mounted upon said arm;and electrical connections for energizing said magnet at all timesexcept when said arm is contiguous to said. receptacle.

7. The combination with the oscillatory track-section. of a dump; of acheck receptacle a swinging arm disposed to pass in different parts ofits path of osoillationoontiguremove a check from said car and tode-enerously to a car upon said track-section and gize the same to dropsuch check into the re- IO to said check-receptacle; means operativelyceptaole. connecting said arm with said track-section Signed by me, this5th day of Sept, 1906.

to swing the same in unison with the move- FRANK C. GREENE. ments of thelatter; an eleotro-magnet Attested bymounted upon said arm; andelectrical con 0. V. GREENE,

nections adapted to energize said magnet to GEORGE M. GARRETT.

